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HALIFAX—The chair of an independent human rights inquiry that took place in Halifax this summer sided with a group of wheelchair users who said the province discriminated against them by failing to enforce accessible washrooms in Nova Scotia restaurants.

Gail Gatchalian, a Halifax-based human rights lawyer and the chair of a Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission board of inquiry that convened in July, determined that the province must ensure that public washrooms in food establishments are accessible to people who use wheelchairs.

Paul Vienneau, along with four other complainants, filed a human rights complaint against the Nova Scotia government for failing to ensure that restaurant owners have accessible washroom facilities if they have an outdoor patio for the summer. (Zane Woodford / StarMetro Halifax)

Also, Gatchalian ordered that the province pay each of the five people who lodged a complaint against the province $1,000 in damages.

In a forty-page decision signed by Gatchalian Thursday, the board of inquiry chair and human rights lawyer weighed arguments from both sides. In the end, she determined the province’s interpretation of the food safety regulations to be too narrow.

The food safety regulations say restaurants must provide “washroom facilities for the public available in a convenient location.”

Gatchalian said those words are “straightforward” in their grammatical sense, but the crux of the hearing was the province’s interpretation in the context of food safety and human rights.

Gatchalian heard two days of testimony at a hearing in Halifax in July, where the lawyer for the complainants said public health is at risk if some people aren’t able to wash their hands in restaurants.

A lawyer representing the province said he wasn’t opposed to the general goal of improving accessibility, but that this specific human rights complaint was “dramatic.”

Warren Reed, Ben Marston, Jeremy MacDonald, Kelly McKenna and Paul Vienneau all use wheelchairs for mobility and together lodged the complaint to the Human Rights Commission in July.

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Reed had submitted a similar complaint in 2016, but the commission would not accept it. He pushed for a judicial review, and a provincial supreme court judge ruled that his complaint had to be heard.

Taryn Grant is a Halifax-based reporter focusing on education. Follow her on Twitter: @tarynalgrant

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